Random tales of travel and tramping

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To the White House! I knew the address (1600 Pennsylvannia Ave) from playing The Secret of Monket Island. Computer games are educational.

Using 100x zoom

You can go on a tour but need to apply at least a month ahead.

This passed while I was there. Oooh fancy people!

Next I went to the Occupy site.

Usual thing.

Too much drinking and drug taking at a proest site? Hmm!

No explanation here . . .

Then I went up to the NZ embassy. It’s not on Embassy Row with the others – it’s snuggled in behind the British embassy.

NZ Embassy. No parking!

Very rare photo!

It is my right to have a secret vote, but remember the specials always go National. I returned to the city centre.

Chinatown arch

Next stop was the Museum of the American Indian.

They cover indigeonous people from the whole American continent

There’s a video to start – not especially informative, but fancy. The displays are all very new but it didn’t feel cohesive to me.

Aztec gold

Cherokee language

They do wear these

Skulls for the Day of the Dead. Grim Fandango!

Masks from Alaska

Suitable clothing

Peace pipe

I don't know what this was doing there, but it's a rare prototype Colt ACR

Oooh!

This is a way women record their life history. The knots and beads have different meanings, and a bit more is added on with each major even in their life.

This records evens from the 1790s-1890s

An actual tipi!

This belongs to Senator Nighthorse

Carved gourd

Warriors would be given these handbags as rewards or taken as trophies. This is a modern one.

I’d been told their cafeteria was very good. They do have fancier food but expect to pay $10-$20 for a main.

It's a corn cake with a bean and capsicum sauce and some other sauce I couldn't decipher.

After that I went to the Air and Space Museum.

Capsule that took the first American to space

The Mars lander!

ME262

They have a lot here but several of the displays were very old – at least 20 years. The objects were ok but the panels were very dated – ‘The future of computer aided design!’

Jet fighter cockpits - 1940s and 1980s

Helmets through the ages

Stewardess' uniforms from the 60s. Fabulous!

Spacesuit worn on the Moon!

The Soviet Moon suit - alas, never used. Note chest-mounted computer.

First spacesuit worn in space!

Mercury spacesuit vs Soyuz suit worn by Gagarin

THE LUNAR LANDER! Not the original, since that is still on the Moon. This one was used in tests.

Minuteman III. THE bomb.

The ACTUAL Wright flyer!

Mars rover. Vroom!

Model of Voyager.

I have always had a thing for the Voyager spacecraft. Launched in 1977 to go to the depths of space, they send back signals about what they pass – they have shown us what Jupiter etc are made from, and decided that Pluto was not a planet. They have now gone outside of the Solar System and still send signals back. But what fascinates me is their cargo.

The disc.

On board is a copper LP with information about Earth and the human race – greetings, messages of peace, the sounds of wind in the trees. In case the aliens don’t have record players, they included a stylus, and pictograms about how to play it back. It also has video included on some of the tracks.